"Katie Couric used to be a fashion plate" says Suze Yalof Schwartz, executive fashion editor at large at Glamour magazine. "She used to take chances with fashion, and she loved color."

But for her new job, Couric's wardrobe will have to be as restrained as her diction, which already seems to have shed its trademark "Today" giggle. In place of big, flowing, patterned skirts, eye-popping sweaters and the occasional Thanksgiving Parade skullcap, expect form-fitting suits by the likes of Michael Kors and Ralph Lauren that all but shout classic.

But plain and simple shouldn't cross the line to gender-bending, warns wardrobe specialist Elena Castaneda of New York Image Consultant in Manhattan.

"She doesn't want to try to dress like a man," Castaneda cautions, citing studies that have shown male colleagues interpret unisex dressing as - surprise! - a threat to their own positions. "But she does want to dress more structured, more conservative and more clean-cut so people are directed toward her and not her wardrobe."

It's just a fact of life: High-profile women are more scrutinized and judged than men, shrugs Castaneda, who thinks Couric's new sartorial sobriety is a smart move.

"For her to have a looser style may not be the best thing for the new viewers," many of whom, Castaneda surmises, skew more male than Couric's morning-show fans.

But while Couric works on projecting intellectual heft - instead of what one online detractor called "perky gravitas" - she needs to bring her younger "Today" demographic along for the ride. Which explains last week's ballyhoo over her publicity photos, which had been electronically altered to shave off 20 or so pounds.